Cops don't see eye to eye with witness

Published 4:00 am, Wednesday, September 24, 2008

A cyclist stops at the new red bicylce light at Fell Street and Masonic Avenue.

A cyclist stops at the new red bicylce light at Fell Street and Masonic Avenue.

Photo: Erin Allday

Cops don't see eye to eye with witness

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Leave a message at the beep: San Francisco police are flatly disputing the claim by Eva Royale, a candidate for supervisor in District Nine, that they failed to return her calls alerting them she had been a witness to a slaying.

Royale has frequently mentioned seeing the killing of Mark "Papa" Guardado, the president of the San Francisco chapter of the Hells Angels motorcycle club, from her front window on Sept. 2. She's talked about it in debates, in interviews with reporters and even held a news conference last week to discuss it.

Yet for some reason, she didn't give a statement to police for 13 days and after a suspect had been named. She had maintained that the authorities wouldn't return her calls.

Police Sgt. Wilfred Williamssaid it's really the other way around - police returned Royale's call immediately and kept on calling.

"There were attempts to contact the witness, and there was no response," he said. "The same day we received the information from the witness, the witness was contacted."

Green light for red light: San Francisco cyclists and transit officials on Tuesday unveiled new traffic lights to help bikers cross safely at the busy intersection of Masonic Avenue and Fell Street.

And within minutes, cars were blowing through the red no-left-turn arrow.

OK, so it's going to take everyone a few days to get used to the new lights. But cycling advocates said that in the long run, the light will prevent a lot of accidents and scary close calls.

The intersection is among the city's most dangerous, said Leah Shahum, head of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition. Just three weeks ago, a woman was hit by a car while crossing Fell Street and suffered a broken rib.

The lights are on the south side of the intersection, where cars turn left from Fell onto Masonic. A multipurpose trail runs through that intersection. Cars making the left turn on a green light often don't see bikes coming from the trail.

"It's one of those situations where no one's at fault," Shahum said.

Well, technically the drivers probably are at fault for not looking out for bikers, but between parked cars and low-hanging tree branches, it's tough to see cyclists coming.

The new lights flash a red bike symbol when cyclists should be stopped on Fell. They wait while cars get a green arrow to turn left. When their arrow turns red, cyclists get a green bike symbol and are free to go.

In theory, anyway. City officials say they'll be putting up some warning signs in the coming days to remind motorists to actually stop when they see the red arrow.

Get inked, get tested: It's now possible to get your beloved's name inscribed on your bicep and at the same time find out if he or she has given you a sexually transmitted disease, under a new effort by the Department of Public Health.

City officials today will gather at Gotham Tattoo Parlor to announce the expansion of the program that works just like this: People can now go online to www.STDTest.org to learn which tests are recommended, get a lab slip, get help in choosing a lab (or, uh, tattoo parlor), get tested and get results within a week.

The idea behind expanding into the tattoo parlor is to help get more people regularly tested.

"Individuals reluctant to seek medical care for STDs can take their first step toward treatment without fear or embarrassment," said Dr. Jeffrey Klausner.

A man was found dead in his car on Fillmore Street between McAllister and Fulton. Police Sgt. Wilfred Williams said that there was no crime involved, and that the man had suffered some kind of medical issue. Mirkarimi, who showed up in his standard sweats, unfortunately was too late to save the day.

A year ago, a jogging Mirkarimi helped capture two suspects in a drive-by shooting. In 2005, he and a friend performed CPR on a man in distress in Buena Vista Park. He also recently stopped a robbery in progress.

Does he need a cape? "Well, I don't know what to say. That's ridiculous - of course not!" he laughed before quickly returning to the mode of the chairman of the public safety committee.

"We need to upgrade our level of customer service and response to citizens who are traumatized," he said. "We need to solve cases, and we need to rebuild esteem in communities that are crime-distressed."

- Heather Knight

Check out the blog: Find extra features on the City Insider blog, including Mayor Gavin Newsom's East Coast schedule this week and information on how to donate to the struggling San Francisco Food Bank.

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